UPDATED 22nd Jul 2020
Victoria has recorded its highest daily coronavirus toll since the start of the pandemic, with 484 new cases overnight.
The state’s previous high was 428 cases on Friday, with numbers consistently in triple-digit figures for three weeks, in a second wave of the pandemic.
Cases increased by 428 on Friday, prompting a plea from the premier to use common sense about movement within the city.
Mr Andrews also announced on Friday three more people – a man in his 80s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s – had died.
Premier Daniel Andrews has given his condolences to the families of those who died on Wednesday.
“This will be a very, very sad and challenging time for them,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday urged people in those postcodes to stay in their local areas if they wanted to exercise citing reports of someone from Coburg making a 200 kilometre round trip to undertake physical activity in Rye on the Mornington Peninsula.
“That is not daily exercise. That is a day trip and day trips are not on. There is nothing about that that is compatible with staying at home,” he told reporters.
“If you can walk, if you want to go for a walk then you can go for a walk close to home. That makes sense. Otherwise … that will do nothing but spread the virus.”
Mr Andrews said it was crucial people in locked-down areas followed the rules.
“These are sacrifices, I know, that no-one is enjoying, being in a six-week lockdown. Stay-at-home orders are frustrating,” he said.
“But at the same time, they are the only tool that we have. We do not want to extend this longer than six weeks.”
The financial penalty for breaching rules in Victoria is $1,652.
Stage 4 considered
On Wednesday, Andrews confirmed that further steps were being considered if the state’s surging cases were not brought under control.
“We haven’t got these stay-at-home restrictions in place for any other reason than they are the best medical advice to try and bring some stability and then a sense of control to this global pandemic, as it presents here in our state,” Andrews said.
“No-one wants a situation where, because of the choices of a few, the vast majority of Victorians have to endure these very frustrating and challenging restrictions any longer than they should.
“The time for warnings, the time for cutting people slack is over.”
However, Andrews said no decision would be made on Thursday.
“It is well to early for us to be moving to a whole new stage,” he said.
“But this is in the hands of every single Victorian.”